History of the Paris Salon

In 17th-century France, excitement toward the arts was accelerating. Royal art academies were being established, pushing new ideals in art, culture, and science. Attitudes were shifting away from traditional authority and were instead being questioned, breathing fresh air into creative minds.

The French monarchy, under King Louis XIV’s rule, funded these academies, such as the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and organized exhibitions with a jury to showcase the talented artists France was producing.

The first Paris Salon was held in 1667, and out of the 5,000 works submitted, the jury accepted 2,000. Eventually, this exhibition became an annual event held at the Louvre, amassing over a million visitors in one year and typically displaying thousands of paintings and sculptures. The walls would be covered in art from floor to ceiling.

The Paris Salon allowed the public to experience art in a new way. They did not need to be able to afford the art to enjoy it—they had the opportunity to learn about up-and-coming artists. As the Age of Reason dawned on Western Europe, art began to reflect a new way of thinking. One visitor recalls their experience:

“One cannot say what a pleasant sight it was for me to see all at once such a prodigious quantity of all sorts of works in all the different parts of painting, I mean history, portraiture, landscape, the seas, the flowers, the fruits; and by what kind of magic, as if I had been transported to foreign climes and to quite remote centuries, I found myself a spectator of these famous events whose surprising stories had so often filled me with admiration.”